This also explains the terms used when refering to the woodsman's tools being the gun, the knife and the axe. I have always thought of an axe being large, certainly not the size of a tomahawk, and I was wrong. Also I have always thought of the tomahawk using the particular helve or haft that does not require a wedge to secure the head, and the axe requiring a wedge, wrong again!
From what I have read so far, a tomahawk is a tool/weapon that has a specific type of poll, that with a spike or a pipe bowl. But it can also have a hammer poll. Anyway, read the following and see what you think. Personally I am still finding some grey areas! But I now know more than I did before reading this article.
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Trade Rates in 1812 at Fort Astoria, Columbia River
One half-axe = four beaver
Hatchet = two beaver
Yard of cloth = four beaver
Yard of cotton = two beaver
Large knife = two beaver
Five leaves of well-twisted tobacco = one beaver
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Trade axes of today were called 'Camp Axes' or 'Squaw Axes' or just plain 'Hatchets' in the records of the fur traders and in the words of Indians. We know they were distributed from at least 1570 to about late 19th C. although common axes of the period were traded to Indians before that. They came from Holland, France, England, Canada, Spanish colonies & America. They were used primarily as tools but also as weapons if the need arose (spike tomahawks also were used as tools at times although their main purpose was as a weapon). Trade axes have been greatly maligned by the collectors of the much more expensive pipe tomahawks who claim they were never used as weapons although in the same breath the lighter trade axe of 1lb or less is accepted as a weapon/tool by most. Is it the same as a tomahawk? That depends on your definition, but definitions have been changing through out the historical period and still are. Initially, during the earliest contact period, ANY hatchet or axe used by Native Americans was referred as a tomahawk.
The reality is they used what they had, what they could afford and what was available.
The above article and some of the images curtesy of:
It makes perfect sense to me Le Loup that anything available to hand in a crisis (e.g being attacked) would be utilised as a weapon. If the trade axe was the more common campsite tool I am sure it would be quick to hand if one's life depended on it. Therefore it can be/is a weapon.
ReplyDeleteA very informative read. cheers, Dave
Thanks for the feedback Dave. Yes I agree, but like the knife and the gun, I still think of them as tools first and weapons if needs be.
ReplyDeleteAlso note that "tomahawks" were traded to the Australian Aboriginals, and now I wonder if they were 18th century axes, or they were indeed tomahawks?!
I recall a few tales from hereabouts when a camp axe mediated an encounter with an animal. The offensiveness of a 'squaw axe' may be more of the reference to a woman's tool than the use of the word 'squaw'. Warrior societies were.are notoriously jealous of their masculine identity. However...the term 'squaw' is of aboriginal origin....not anglo. As far as I know 'pipe tomahawks' were ceremonial although I'll bet they became weapons in appropriate circumstance.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article, Le Loup. It can be really confusing. What axes don't all use the Tomahawk's type handle I don't know, it's far safer, I would have thought. Anyway, I am off following the link you provided, probably to confuse myself even more!
ReplyDeleteOh cool - thank you for posting this!
ReplyDeleteI've been looking to get a period-correct hatchet of some kind for cookfire kindling. I admit a romantic attachment to the simple wrap-around beaten iron ones you mention, though that's probably from seeing so many reenactors with them.
Have a suggestion for "18th c. southern frontier home hatchet?" :)
I have been following your research into hatchets and tomahawks with interest Le Loup. The take up of the European tomahawk and hatchet by the natives of both Indian and Aboriginal appears to have been swift.
ReplyDeleteLate 18th century Australia seems to have some interesting similarities with the colonisation of the America's when it comes to the value and use of European hatchets by the natives.
Your readers may find this link interesting Le Loup.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Anthro/anth240/sharp_1952.pdf
Spottedwolf. Very interesting, I wondered about that myself. This seems to fit in with the information Dave Reid has supplied via the link, re Australian Aboriginal masculinity and the axe being a man's tool. My thanks to both of you for this feedback, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI agree woodman, a far superior design of helve/haft.
Jenny. There seems to be so many axes to choose from. The only thing I will say is that if it is for splitting kindling, it needs to have more weight in the head than what is being sold for a tomahawk.